Taiwan Says Chinese Military Aircraft Entered Airspace

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou shakes hands with graduated military students during the 90th anniversary of the Taiwan Military Academy on June 16, 2014. Tensions remain between China and Taiwan even as economic relations have strengthened since Ying-jeou took office in 2008. Photographer: Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan sent fighter jets to tail two
Chinese military planes that entered the island’s air space, a
week after a close encounter between a U.S. and Chinese jet.

“We responded immediately, asking them to leave,” Taiwan
defense minister Yen Ming said yesterday in Taipei. Fighter jets
were dispatched to warn the Chinese surveillance aircraft, each
of which entered Taiwan airspace twice on Aug. 25, to leave,
David Lo, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said
by phone today.

Tensions remain between China and Taiwan even as economic
relations have strengthened since Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou
took office in 2008. The two sides have been governed separately
since China’s Nationalist government fled across the Taiwan
Strait to the island during a civil war with Communist forces.
China still claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has
indicated it will take it back by force if necessary.

As China increases its economic and military muscle,
encounters with other nations’ militaries have been on the rise.
U.S. aircraft had at least two previous run-ins with Chinese
jets this year prior to last week’s encounter, and Japanese and
Chinese planes and ships regularly tail one another around
disputed islands in the East China Sea.

China’s defense ministry confirmed it carried out “routine
flight activities in relevant airspace” on Aug. 25, “with no
unusual occurrences,” according to a faxed response to
questions today.

Barrel Roll

On Aug. 19, a Chinese fighter jet in international waters
flew within 20 feet of a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft and did
a barrel roll over it in what the White House called a
provocation. The U.S. plane, a Boeing P-8 Poseidon submarine
surveillance aircraft, was flying 135 miles (217 kilometers)
east of Hainan Island, China’s main submarine base.

The Chinese navy fighter jet carried out a routine
identification and verification operation, and U.S. claims that
the Chinese action was provocative were “groundless,” Yang
Yujun, spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense, said
in a statement posted on the ministry’s website on Aug. 24.

Yang called on the U.S. to scale back its submarine
surveillance in the area to avoid further incidents. Chinese and
U.S. officials will meet this week to discuss a military code of
conduct for the region as part of an existing plan to avoid such
incidents, China Daily reported, citing China’s defense
ministry.

Avenues for Dialogue

“Under no circumstances and under no rubric of military
relations is it acceptable to fly a jet fighter around a
reconnaissance airplane the way that was done,” Rear Admiral
John Kirby said at briefing yesterday in Washington. “That
said, that doesn’t meant that the relationship isn’t still worth
pursuing, and we continue to look for avenues to try to increase
the dialogue and the cooperation and the understanding and the
transparency between our two countries.”

Kirby said that the U.S. would continue to fly in
international airspace “the way we’ve been” doing.

(An earlier version of this story corrected the date of
the incident.)